When looking at this photograph circulating in the main news the title of the in/famous 1936 novel of the Louis-Ferdinand Céline came to mind – Mort à Crédit – because when one has to give credit these two people with a word that strongly associated with them then these two words come up… they hang as invisible text balloons over their heads as if they were spoken in this tête à tête of two people who got to their actual power position in a similar way. One by being born into a royal family, the other by marrying a future king. The associated novel content of Céline (a master novelist and champion anti-semite at the same time) is summarised in a Wikipedia article on it:

“… sordid stories of families whose destiny is governed by their own stupidity, malice, lust and greed …”

I think it fits the related personal and world events of these two very well, I explain why below.

Queen Maxima is also apointed as United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), her specialism being ‘micro-credits’. The mangament of her personal economics is not much ‘in-line’ with this task as she has recently be exposed in her home land Argentina for tax evasion over property that she had aquired in Patagonia. Her family history may explain how she can “turn a blind eye” on the practices of the man who sits opposite her, the Saudi omnipotent cron-prince who has implicated himself in the silencing of Saudi dissidents, which in one well exposed case led to the killing and dismemberment of well know Saudi dissent Jamal Kashoggi. Worse in the sense of the number of fatalities has been the involvement of crown-prince Mohammad bin Salman – as minister of Defence – in the raging war in Yemen, whereby Saudi Arabia as a proxy for the United States fighting (indirectly) the growing influence of Iran in Yemen (to remind those who blame Trump for all badness of the USA, this deal was made under Obama). Since the year 2016 Saudi Arabia’s airforce (supported by the British and the Americans) have strafed what are supposed to be strongholds of enemies of the Saudi’s.. areal bombardments which have been exposed by many international observers and local human rights organisations of causing more collateral victims than succesful hits on so called military targets.

Queeen Maxima’s father, Jorge Zorreguieta, comes from a rich Argentinian agriculture trading family and he has served also as a deputy minister during the Argentina Junta, taking on also other resposibilities involving him as weel in what is called by the euphemism of ‘interior security’. During that tenure several memebers of the staff for who Jorge Zorreguieta was responsible “disappeared”… as he managed to get his ass out of this mess before the donwfall of the junta, he has managed to evade prosecution during his life-time.
Of course the daughter of such a white collar criminal is not supposed to carry responsibilities for the bad history of her father, but it is striking how Maxima repeats the irresponsibility and ignorance of her own father . Like him she has a strong drive to public fame and an underdeveloped sense of morality and responsibility.

Economics and credits come in yet in another way in the relation between the two royal houses of the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia, with the log standing financial interests of the Dutch’House of Orange’ and world oil companies. Royal Shell is the most prominent expression of that. The grandmother of King Willem Alexander bought early on many shares in this successful company and only a few years ago in 2015 King Willem Alexander flew in to Saudi Arabia to pay his respects to the deceased Saudi King Abdullah, an act that was at that time criticised by some because of the abhorent state of human rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This citation I took from the news service Al Jazeera (yes I know all big players on the international media market are somehow participating also in the creation of the misery they expose):

“Queen Maxima of the Netherlands is facing a barrage of criticism over a meeting she had with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the G20 summit in Japan. // Agnes Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, who has been investigating the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, accused Maxima of complicity by not discussing the case with the crown prince.“If you do not speak and do not demand justice, it suggests that you have no concerns,” Callamard told Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad on Saturday.” (…)“Silence, turning a blind eye, a ‘business as usual approach’ towards the increasingly aggressive tactics of too many autocrats; those are not the characteristics of leadership that we should expect.”

NB mostly pictures taken of Maxima tend to be charming and/or embellishing, this one NOT… one can not escape second thoughts… is she stupified?… does she experience a moment of memory loss?… also one can see she is taken notes in some kind of cahier, or it her brieving notes?… all very non-monarch style.. monarchs do not make notes, they have their retinue to take care of such commoners things…